"Caucasian Knot" defines winners of contest of comments to materials on Russian presidential election

The contest of comments to the materials of the "Caucasian Knot" on the Russian presidential election – "The Choice of the Caucasus" – is over. On March 7-15, readers voted for the messages pre-selected by the editorial board. As a result, most votes were cast by the comments made by users with nicknames "Musulmanin", "Povolzhie" and nart82, who will receive prizes.

At the first stage of the contest, the editorial board selected 10 comments, which, in our opinion, contained three key factors: informative character and compliance with the topic and the rules of the "Caucasian Knot".

The users of the "Caucasian Knot" were most active in commenting on the elections in Dagestan: five out of ten comments were on that. Also, readers were interested in the courser of the election campaign and voting in Kabardino-Balkaria and other regions of Northern Caucasus and Southern Russia. One of the comments focused on election observers.

The winner of the contest by readers' vote, which was attended by 650 people, was the comment by the user with the nickname "Musulmanin" (Muslim) to the material "Residents of Makhachkala report pressure to increase voter turnout at Russian presidential election": "We were all told at work that we must go and vote; at the polling station we should be given a small calendar – these calendars should them be shown at work for ourselves and our family members. All the city offices instruct their employees in this way under threats to deprive them of bonuses and benefits, if they disobey" he wrote. This comment won 111 (17.08%) votes.

The second place was taken by the user with the nickname "Povolzhie": "After the closure of polling stations, mass removal of oppositional members of election commissions began; the press was not allowed to make video and photos; Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation were twice driven out of the Lenin TEC (Territorial Election Commission) and not admitted to polling stations. It was a complete falsification. Observers were not allowed to recount ballot papers. Those who demanded it were immediately removed from stations under collective decision of other commission members. Law enforcement bodies were on the side of falsifiers, not of the laws of the Russian Federation. At 4 in the morning only the started counting the ballots of the presidential election. Again, we saw the situation of December 4, 2011, when the data began arriving into the 'Gosvybory' (State Elections) system not on December 5, as expected, but only on December 7." The commentator placed his indignation under the article "The police received 19 reports about election violations in Astrakhan Region – this comment received 70 (10.77%) of the votes.

The message of the commentator nart82, which was posted under the article "Observers in Kabardino-Balkaria complain about obstacles to their work at the election", won 69 (10.62%) of the votes: "And how many representatives of Prokhorov, Zhirinovsky and Mironov were in our villages? I, for example, at our station saw nobody unfamiliar as observers: all of them were from 'Edinaya Rossiya' (United Russia) Party. And then another question – what is easier: to seal two ballot boxes or to get extra ballot papers???" asked the author, who took the third place.

The winners will receive prizes: the "Musulmanin" will receive a digital photo camera Kodak EasyShare M531, the users "Povolzhie" and nart82, who took the second and the third places in the contest of the "Caucasian Knot", will receive hard drives Transcend 500 Gb and Transcend 320 Gb respectively.